Review: Quorn Goat Cheese and Cranberry Filet

On an impulse, and because it had the words goat cheese and cranberry all over the packaging on a shopping trip which I really should have snacked before embarking upon, I bought Quorn's "chicken filets" stuffed with the aforementioned goat cheese and cranberry, and breaded and baked. Made from myco-protein, otherwise known as fungi, the texture was an incredibly good mimic of that chewy, muscly thing that chicken breast has (god I just barfed in my mouth a little thinking about muscle-filet). Also the nutty, umami flavor derived from mushrooms? I mean it didn't exactly specify if they were crimini or shiitake or anything other than "myco-protein" on the package. But it definitely was savory. And I definitely savored it.

With a bottle of Chardonnay and some veggies. 

All in all it took me about 17 minutes.

2 Filets, in a preheated toaster oven for 15 minutes and your done with your main dish. I sprinkled some chives on top, but fresh rosemary or sage would be hella tastee too.

Zucchini got some color in a pan with a little sea salt and olive oil. Took about 5 minutes for those to start caramelizing, at which point I added the swiss chard and a little garlic. Swiss chard takes basically the blink of an eye to wilt, and then we were ready. I shot it with some fresh lemon juice as I was plating.

The filet was amazing. Just the slightest bit of both tang and butteriness from the goat cheese under the breading. The zing of lemon juice, and the juicy butteriness of the zucchini really brought the veggies together with the filet. I really liked how the goat cheese held the breading on, so it would sort of flake off and reveal all this mushy, deliciousness oozing onto the fork.

I would ask of Quorn only for a greater proportion of cranberry. It seemed to be shaved to just the essence of the dried fruit, and not in every bite, just popping out occasionally.

Chanterelle Ravioli and Gjetost Sauce

Sometimes it's too late at night to cook from scratch. Or maybe you're too bone-tired from another day of non-stop, pedal to the floor getting-shit-done. I had a night like that this week, you know the kind, crawling home from "restorative" yoga and stopping at the over-priced Marketime corner shop for a bottle of prosecco, Bitch magazine, and pre-made dinner? Yes, I was so tired I thought about eating nothing but a box of "buffalo wings" and getting full off the carbon-dioxide in my screw-top (!!!) bubbly.

Instead, I picked up a pack of frozen ravioli by Rising Moon Organics. I've enjoyed their butternut squash ravioli quite a bit on other over-worked, under-napped nights. I've also been looking for a meatless way to enjoy the Gjetost Sauce featured on New Scandinavian Cooking, which is paired with meatballs in Norwegian fare. Holy Shit, they're like little umami dumplings slathered in the sweet dreams alfredo sauce has of being young and in love again. Feeds 1 (or 2 with a salad, you know, if you can bring your poor calloused hands to make one).

Chanterelle Ravioli (1 pack)

1. Boil water, no oil or salt, as these ravioli are fragile!
2. Bring the water from a rolling boil down to a soft one. Add the ravioli unthawed.
3. These are ready in exactly 8 minutes, no need to throw them against a wall.

Sauce
1/2 cup sour cream
3 oz gjestost cheese
zest of one lemon
pinch of sea salt

1. Get a small pot warmed up.
2. Add sour cream.
3. Add shaved gjetost, a little bit at a time, stirring and integrating the cheese before adding more.
4. When the sauce is nearly hot, add the zest of an entire lemon, and a tiny bit of salt.

One of the most exciting things for me about this recipe was the opportunity to put Ski Queen and Ektoste to a Pepsi Challenge. These are the two most popular brands of Norwegian Gjetoste in the US, if you've been living under a cheeseless rock.Ski Queen is part cow and part goat's milk and whey. Ektoste is more traditional, 100% goat whey. This gives it a slightly sharper tang than the Ski Queen. The caramel smoothness is stronger in the Ski Queen, so, although I'm ordinarily a goat cheese purist, I am really glad I ended up using both brands.

The dish turned out looking kind of sick in the pictures. It looks sort of like a melted Werther's Original in the picture, and although it had a salted caramel thing going on, it was complex and soft and stuck to the noodles more than the sides of your teeth. It was simple to make, only three ingredients, and yet really complex and tangy (goat whey will do that for you). It amazed me that with sour cream and gjetost, it was set to be really tangy, obvs., but it was the lemon rind that really brought out the tang, really mellowed out the almost too-creaminess of it.

Also it took me, seriously, no more than 10 minutes.